OUR AIM IN LIFE
by VP
Posted on Sunday August 25, 2024 at 12:00AM in Sermons
'Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God."—MATT. vi. 33.
1. It is natural to seek and desire.
2. But how few, the Kingdom of God!
3. What is meant by the Kingdom of God"? -Christ teaches us.
"It is natural to man to seek after something. There is always a want in the heart, and man seeks after that which he imagines will fill the void. Test this. Usually it is something that will ensure a better income, a position, influence; or maybe just the pleasure and joy of life, variety, excitement, the vogue of the present. Or it may be a loving heart seeks for love; it is ready to give, and yet it yearns for a return of affection. Whatever it may be, a man, worthy of the name of man, is seeking something, is keen after something.
But looking around us in the world, the last thing that would strike us would be that the chief thing that mankind was seeking was "the Kingdom of God." And yet that is the injunction of our Blessed Lord: "Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God." Seek it, yea, seek it first! Seek it above everything else! It is of no avail to own that the world at large utterly neglects this solemn word of Christ. The practical point is to ask ourselves our own soul-are we seeking first this Kingdom of God? Is there not something else in our heart striving to be master there? Is there not something else that dominates our interest, our time, our thoughts? About which we are more keen and anxious, more strenuous and determined, than gaining the Kingdom of God.
But you may object: What is this Kingdom of God? How have we to seek it? Can it be that we have to discard and reject the pursuits and pleasures of the world that lure us on, and are not satisfied without they are supreme in our heart, to banish them utterly and listen to what faith tells us of the Kingdom of God? The message of faith strikes us cold and numbs our heart; for we are told in the book that we dare not doubt nor disobey about the Kingdom of God. The gospel says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." Blessed are the meek: those that mourn: those that hunger and thirst after justice: the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers: yea, "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven ” (Matt. v. 3, 10)."
Such is the teaching of the God of Truth, God made man for our sakes. These words are in His first sermon, and did not His own life bear them out? He did not teach one thing, and do another. He was born in a stable-poor in spirit. He said, "Learn of Me, because I am meek, and humble of heart" (Matt. xi. 29). He was the Man of sorrows. He was merciful; and the peacemaker, for He came in His mercy to reconcile poor rebel sinners to His Father. He suffered persecution, even to the death of the Cross, and thus He won the Kingdom of heaven. "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?" (Luke xxiv. 26).
And the sacred book teaches us again, what would all the pleasures and glory of the world be to us (and how little shall we ever gain of them !)?—for "the world passeth away" (1 John ii. 17). All that has enthralled the hearts of men with vain hopes is nothing more but merely the short lived glory of a summer's day. Whereas we have immortal souls to satisfy; how can transient joys suffice for them? What a void there would be; and alas, how soon in our deluded souls! Peace and plenty, joy and comfort, friends and love around us only make the thought of death the more to be dreaded, and the leaving them all, the final separation, the more appalling.
Look through the dark and fearful vista of the future, the sacred book comes to our assistance once again. "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world" (1 John ii. 15). Seek not this world and its joys and its vain happiness, but seek first the Kingdom of God, and then when life is over, what a revelation of glory there will be, a Kingdom of glorious eternity. The cross becomes the crown: the poor take possession of the Kingdom; the meek shall possess the land; those that have mourned and suffered shall rejoice; the merciful shall find mercy; the clean of heart shall see God; the peacemakers and those that have forgiven shall find forgiveness and a welcome to their Father's home; and those that have suffered for Christ's sake, theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Poor, unknown, despised on this earth, we may have been: obedient, humble, and contrite of heart, we have daily done our best to seek first the Kingdom of God, and death will reveal it to us that we have succeeded, and the blessed success will last for ever! No more anxiety and fear of falling into sin; no more crosses and afflictions. We shall be transformed into the children of light and glory, companions of the saints, surrounded by the angels. Children of Mary, we shall then learn what it is to have the Queen of heaven for our Mother. We shall be welcomed by our Lord and Savior, because we have obeyed His words in the holy book. And for ever we shall dwell with our Father in heaven, because we kept that word, "Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God."Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB (14th Sunday after Pentecost)
SELFISHNESS
by VP
Posted on Sunday August 18, 2024 at 12:00AM in Sermons
"Where are the nine ?"-LUKE Xvii. 17.
1. Our petitions very different from our thanks: selfishness the cause.
2. The miracle proves that nine out of ten were selfish and ungrateful.
3. How our Blessed Lord suffered from ingratitude.
4. Let us learn unselfishness from our Savior, and unite our thanks with His in the Holy Eucharist.
"ALL prayer is not simply a prayer of petition, of asking, however much we may need mercy and grace and forgiveness. Praise and thanksgiving are due to the almighty and loving God. The angels and blessed in heaven sing without ceasing the glory and praise of God, and their grateful thanks will last throughout eternity. But on earth how different are nine out of every ten of mankind! We are earnest when we want anything; in fear and misery and pain we make our petitions to God repeatedly and earnestly. The favor granted; the fear removed; the pain alleviated; oh, how poor our gratitude! The old saying is true, "Eaten bread is soon forgotten."
We cannot help but think thus with the example of the lepers fresh in our minds to-day. Anxious, earnest, imploring were those lepers in their misery. The voice of the Savior filled them with hope, they obeyed; they were cleansed, to their utter joy and amazement; but only one returned, giving thanks to his divine benefactor. Selfish in their prayer, to get rid of their loathsome disease; selfish even when miraculously cured, they went on their way selfishly rejoicing!
“Where are the nine ?" It is a humiliating avowal to own that we too have been selfish; that we find ourselves amongst the nine. Our conscience can recall anxiety, fear, tears in the past, when we humbly begged of God for forgiveness of some grave sin; in dread of a calamity or the expectation of death. Yes, and conscience is ashamed to own the brief, halfhearted, or perhaps forgotten gratitude with which we repaid our loving Lord. Selfishness led us to beseech and pray; selfishness led us to forget the grateful thanks that were due.
How, then, can we overcome this love of self, which is the cause of our want of thankfulness? Gratitude is due to God, and He loves us to be grateful. gratitude hurt the Sacred Heart of our divine Lord, not now indeed, but in His lifetime. Continually, all through those thirty-three years of His days on earth, our Lord had present in His mind the ingratitude of men, and it grieved Him. He knew all that He would do and suffer for sinners, and infinite love could do no more and He knew all the neglect, the forgetfulness, the ingratitude of those whom He had loved so much. We are told that the sufferings of His soul were greater far than the sufferings of His sacred Body in His Passion. The scourging, the crown of thorns, the nails through His hands and feet were less agonizing than the stabs of ingratitude through His tender, loving Heart. The bodily sufferings of the Passion, from His Betrayal to His Death, were over on Good Friday, but in His Heart He had suffered all His life. It was not merely the ingratitude with which He was treated whilst on earth, but all the ingratitude that would be shown Him, the Prisoner of love in the Holy Eucharist. He foreknew how He would be treated, even by those who believe in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar-all their neglect, forgetfulness, disdaining to visit Him, to receive Him. They know that Mass and Holy Communion are the supreme acts of love and thanksgiving to Almighty God. Alas! "where are the nine?" Some few are faithful and loving, but where are the nine? By most men, He is often and carelessly forgotten.
What a model of unselfishness is our dear Lord! Though He knew all this and suffered it, yet did He give Himself not only to the Cross; but to continue His Redemption, He renews it in each Holy Mass, and dwells continually with us in the tabernacle: “I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world" (Matt. xxviii. 20). If we would only study His unselfishness and make the memory of it live within our hearts, it would shame us; it would make us annihilate the self-love within us. Let us, then, learn unselfishness from our Lord in the tabernacle. He is there longing for us to visit Him, to pray to Him, to love Him and receive Him. Look back at our own lives. For days, weeks, months perhaps, we have forgotten Him. How cold and distracted we are even in His sacred Presence! During how many a Mass of obligation it has been merely by our bodily presence that we have been before Him, and our hearts far from Him. Selfishness again! Distractions born of worldly desires, of uncharitableness, because self had been slighted or hurt, of memories of self-gratification, of memories of our sinful past perhaps, have occupied our minds. And all the time, He, our Divine Benefactor, Whom we were pretending to worship, was waiting for a loving word of thanks.
Our poor thanks - are they worth offering? Are they worthy of His acceptance? Yes, indeed; for in His mercy He has made Himself our own thank offering! Jesus, in the Holy Eucharist, is the thank offering. At Holy Mass, at Holy Communion, we are united to Him; and our poor thanks are borne up to heaven with His, and accepted before the throne of God." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB (13th Sunday after Pentecost)
KINDLINESS ONE TO ANOTHER
by VP
Posted on Sunday August 11, 2024 at 12:00AM in Sermons
"He that showed mercy to him . . . and Jesus said to him: Go and do thou in like manner."-LUKE X. 37.
1. How many neglect to do "in like manner."
2. Love one another in thought, word, and deed.
3. Even in small things, how blessed by peace of conscience and piety.
4. But the greatest blessing is, by practicing kindliness, we grow like our Lord.
"THE touching parable of this day's Gospel contains many lessons, and amongst others, it is an instruction how we should fulfill that command of our Blessed Savior, "Love one another as I have loved you" (John xiii. 34). And the necessity for us to study this lesson is impressed on us by the fact that so many neglect this duty. This we see from the parable, for our Lord tells us how the priest and the Levite, representing good people and those who should have known their duty, passed by the wounded man; and it was left to a poor Samaritan - an outcast, as the Jews considered him - to give us an example of brotherly love. The very lawyer who had cross-questioned our Blessed Lord sought to evade the command by asking, "Who is my neighbor?" But he brought on himself the rebuke which forced from him the answer that will teach mankind until the end of time. Jesus said to him, "Which of these three, in thy opinion, was neighbor to him that fell amongst robbers?" He was compelled to answer, " He that showed mercy to him."
Love for our neighbor is a duty by the command of God. To love God is the first and great commandment. "And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt. xxii. 39). And the practice of this duty is inculcated and explained in this parable. Anyone needing kindly assistance is our neighbor, and we are bound, according to our ability, to help him. Even by thought we can be charitable, and study how to comfort the afflicted and the dying. A pitying thought would lead us to pray, and with prayers we can follow even the dying, and rescue them from purgatory. By word, by comforting, consoling, advising those in trouble. By deed, by bestowing alms, taking trouble to assist them, by visiting the sick and the dying.
Alas! our neighborly love is often weak and attenuated for want of practice. We are so engrossed with ourselves, with our own comforts and well-being, that we forget others, and begrudge a little sacrifice for them. To some, perhaps, we are a little charitable: their misery appeals to us. Others we pass by: their poverty, disease, surroundings are repulsive to us. We cannot bring ourselves to the practice of kindly charity to them. We shudder at the remembrance of what so many saints and pious people have done-visiting the hospitals, seeking out the afflicted in their homes, and attending to them in their wretchedness.
But how many other ways are there of being charitable, that do not call for such heroism! Begin with humble little practices, but let them be daily ones. A daily practice soon becomes a habit, and little kindnesses will nourish our thoughtfulness, our generosity, and presently we shall find ourselves showing mercy and being blessed by it. The least thing done for Christ's sake is worthy of reward-even "a cup of cold water" given in His name. The rich man, who was buried in hell, cried out to Abraham for a drop of cold water to cool his tongue. He was past all mercy. But the souls in purgatory are longing for a little alleviation; and how many are totally forgotten by their friends, perhaps even by those to whom they had been so kind in life! Perhaps some fond mother suffering now for being too indulgent to us, and we heartlessly forget her. "Show mercy," by prayers, masses, and do not begrudge a Holy Communion offered for them. How blessed will be the reward of our charity, and how grateful we shall be for having practiced it, when our time comes to be judged and punished!
Amongst the rewards for kindliness to others, who can tell the peace of conscience and happiness that result from works of mercy, or even from words of consolation, with which we have comforted others? The hard-hearted, the selfish, the haughty cannot picture to themselves what they miss, and the comforting, holy joy of which they deprive their souls.
But the greatest blessing for being kindly one to another is this, that day by day we are growing more like our Blessed Lord, Who went about doing good to all. His spirit is filling our souls, and our hard and selfish hearts are being subdued and taking up the yoke of Christ. "Love one another as I have loved you." This is the motive that urges us to be kind and charitable; to grow like to Him should be our daily endeavor. Therefore a peace, that the world cannot understand, envelops our daily life, and by degrees this world and its love and its pleasures lose their fascination for us; and with joy we feel that it is heaven and the Lord of heaven to Whom we are seeking to attain.
Practicing kindliness, in little ways day after day, transforms our lives, and from being selfish and hard we grow prompt and generous, ready for some great occasion, which may arise, when we can prove ourselves imitators of our divine Master, and ready for His sake to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others.
"Go and do thou in like manner." This He bids us do. Unless we attempt it, force ourselves to do it, we are disobeying; we are cowards. Self is our master; our Blessed Lord is ignored. No wonder our prayers are unheard; our passions unsubdued; the practice of piety repugnant. Our religion is merely an outward show; the spirit of Christ is not in our hearts; we hear, but heed not, His words, "Love one another as I have loved you."
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Francis Paulinus Hickey
OUR FAITH
by VP
Posted on Sunday August 04, 2024 at 12:00AM in Sermons
JacquesTissot, healing
"By which also you are saved."—I COR. XV. 2.
1. Faith the gift of God.
2. The objects of our faith in the Gospels-viz., Redemption, Church, Sacraments, Prayer, Reward in Heaven.
3. Some fall away from faith, some think little of it; few treasure it.
"FAITH, without which we cannot be saved, is the gift of God. And faith is the most necessary gift for us to possess, and the noblest gift that the Almighty can bestow upon us, for faith can lead us to life eternal. For faith to do this, we must have a knowledge of its doctrines, and we must strenuously live up to it.
Faith teaches us through the Gospels. In the Gospel we can find all that it is necessary for us to know. And this knowledge is imparted to us in such a way that to know leads us to love and serve our good and merciful God. We adore one God in Three Persons. -Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. We are taught that God the Son became Man, born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost. And His object in this-His Incarnation was the Redemption of fallen man. The consummation of our Redemption was the Death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, on Calvary.
But the Gospels teach us, moreover, that during His life on earth our Blessed Lord and Saviour established His Church, which was commissioned to preach the Gospel to every living creature. This Church was fortified with the promise of Christ, that it should be imperishable; that the Holy Spirit should teach it all truth, and that He Himself would remain with it until the end of time. That this Church should continue in its blessed work of guarding the truth and saving souls, Christ appointed a Vicar, the head of the Church, Peter the rock, to whom His powers were delegated, for to him He gave the Keys of the Kingdom of heaven.
Moreover, to seal us unto the Faith, and to strengthen us to act up to it, we are taught in the holy Gospel that Christ instituted the Seven Sacraments, by which grace is given to our souls. This power they have from their divine institution by Christ, the merits of Whose precious Blood is applied by them to the souls of men. The first is Baptism, which cleanses us from original sin, makes us Christians, children of God, and members of His Church. We receive the Holy Ghost in Confirmation to make us strong and perfect Christians. In the Holy Eucharist, which is not only a Sacrament in which we receive the true Body and Blood of Christ, but a Sacrifice also, the Holy Mass, which is one and the same Sacrifice with that of the Cross.
The holy Gospel also hands down those blessed words of the Saviour: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them" (John xx. 22). How faith makes poor sinners cling in hope to this Sacrament of Penance. The sick and the dying are not forgotten in the list of Sacraments. The continuation of priests and bishops for the ministry is safeguarded by the Sacrament of Holy Orders; and family life is blessed and ennobled by the Sacrament of Matrimony.
Faith does not leave us lonely and unprotected in our daily life. How we should wander and lose our way, and be seduced by vain pleasures and pursuits on all sides, if our Faith let us forget God! But in the Gospel we are taught the duty of prayer-to raise up our minds and hearts to God. Our Blessed Lord Himself taught us how to pray! To lift up our souls to our Father in heaven; to do Him honour by our good lives; to long for His Kingdom to come; to know that perfection is in doing His holy Will; to turn to Him for strength for soul and body; to be forgiving to others, as we pray Him to be forgiving to us. Oh ! blessed prayer that thus directs our hearts and souls to God each day of life. Pray always," says the Gospel; and our Blessed Lord gave us the example, praying for us on the mountain side the long night through. And we need not fear that our poor prayers will be of no avail, for we pray "through Jesus Christ our Lord." Remember His promises," If you shall ask Me anything in My name, that I will do" (John xiv. 14). "If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask Him" (Matt. vii. II). Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you" (ibid. 7). The Gospel repeatedly assures us of blessed answers to our prayers.
And most glorious too in the Gospel is that blessed assurance of eternal reward, if we keep steadfast to the Church, led on by our holy Faith. After the Last Supper, our Lord prayed thus: "Father, I will that where I am, they also, whom Thou hast given Me, may be with Me: that they may see My glory which Thou hast given Me" (John xvii. 24). But speaking as the Judge our divine Lord and King speaks thus: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the Kingdom prepared for you" (Matt. xxv. 34). Oh! how often have we prayed "Thy Kingdom come!" And thus our faith will be crowned in that eternal Kingdom of God.
Thus is our faith taught by the holy Gospel. Can it be that men, who once have been thus blessed with the sacred gift of faith, should fall away? It is, alas! too true. And for what have they abandoned their faith? That will be the remorse of it all throughout eternity. For what have they bartered their soul, their immortal soul, the soul that by faith was the child of God - the soul that had been redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ ?
But many amongst us think but far too little of this gift of faith. There is something else that they prize still more. What can it be but something perishable, for this world passeth away, but faith leads to immortal glory. We then must treasure our faith, the blessed gift of God. We must know it thoroughly, follow its guidance, be loyal to it, and profess it openly. The Gospel and the Faith "you have received, wherein you stand; by which also you are saved, if you hold fast." Remember, eternal life depends on that "if you hold fast."
Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Rev. Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB 1922 (11th Sunday after Pentecost)
